The court rejected Kim Moon-soo's request for a provisional ruling to confirm his candidacy on the 9th, and it seems that the People Power Party leadership will officially begin the process of a 'unification roadmap.'
The Seoul Southern District Court dismissed the provisional ruling request that candidate Kim submitted for the 'recognition of presidential candidate status' on that day. Along with this, it also dismissed the provisional ruling requests submitted by eight district committee chairs of the People Power Party to stop the national committee and convention from being held.
Accordingly, the People Power Party has gained justification to proceed with the national committee and convention, originally scheduled for the 8th to 11th, as planned. In other words, they can take additional steps for candidate replacement.
Kweon Seong-dong, the People Power Party's floor leader, met with reporters right after the court's dismissal of the provisional ruling and responded to a question about whether the unification would gain momentum by saying, 'There is a possibility.'
The People Power Party is expected to discuss specific additional procedural plans at the general meeting scheduled for 8 p.m. that evening.
Earlier, the People Power Party's Secretary General Lee Yang-soo stated in an emergency press conference, '(If rejected) we have to look at public opinion polls,' adding, 'If the poll results for unification show that Kim has a high rating, then there will be no candidate replacement. If candidate Han Duck-soo has a higher rating, whether to pursue the next procedures will be determined by the collective intelligence of the emergency committee.'
Park Hyung-soo, the deputy floor leader, mentioned after an urgently convened meeting of the floor representatives, 'The national committee was called in preparation for candidate unification,' and added, 'However, since the candidate clearly expressed the intention not to agree to unification in the morning, there may be different decisions through the general meeting and emergency committee.'
However, the National Election Commission has determined that it cannot announce the results of the public opinion polls according to Article 108, Paragraph 12 of the relevant law, creating a situation where the possibility of candidate replacement must be gauged based on the atmosphere of the general meeting.
In the political arena, there are discussions about the possibility that Kim's camp will file an additional provisional ruling request to invalidate the party's candidate replacement procedure.
In fact, Kim's camp is reported to have considered filing a provisional ruling request to invalidate the ongoing party members and public opinion polls for unification with candidate Han Duck-soo.
It is said that they are claiming the assertion that any public opinion polls conducted by the party without seeking candidate approval and any associated derivative actions are invalid.